What I Want For My Birthday
by Bighoggi14
Summary: Still pretty short for me, it's a short story about Odd's birthday, and what he really wants. OxAxJ mushiness
1. Odd

**Hi all!**

**Last year on my birthday, another birthday-themed story was posted on my account. That was by one of my best friends, AngElle. Unfortunately, this time, this one is all me. xD**

**I got the idea for this last night before bed, and I wrote it up during French class. :P But hey, I learned the lesson, so it's all good. I hope you enjoy!**

**

* * *

**

What I Want For My Birthday 

_By: Bighoggi14_

It's my birthday tomorrow. Like any normal teenager, I've been waiting with bated breath for the last month now, waiting patiently for it to come.

My friends know about it, of course. Ever since Ulrich's birthday two months ago, they've been waiting just as patiently as I have. I mean, it isn't every day you turn sixteen.

"Odd, what do you want for your birthday?"

A question I've been hearing all this last week.

"I don't know, doesn't really matter," I would always reply, no matter how much it pissed them off.

"Come on, you have to want something!" they would invariably reply, and I would just shrug.

"No, not really." A lie, one of the biggest I've ever told. But they can't know what I want. I'm not going to tell them, I'm not going to tell anyone.

It's not appropriate to want _her._ She's one of my best friends, and she's already taken by another of my best friends. They're happy together, as far as I know, and I wouldn't dare even think about breaking them up for my sake.

I may be self-conceited and have an ego larger than the moon, but I'm still not selfish.

I would take _her_ away from _him_ just for myself, it would tear us all apart.

"So, Odd. I haven't asked you yet. What do you want for your birthday?" _She_ asks me.

"I don't know. Whatever," I reply. A lie, just like I had to everyone else. But then she surprises me.

"That's a lie. You have to want something." I stare at her for a moment before I reply again.

"No, not really." The same answer I had given everyone else.

"Is your life perfect?' She asks me, looking deep into my face.

"Huh?"

"Answer the question. Is your life perfect?"

"No."

"Do you have everything you want in life?"

"No."

"Then there must be something you want!"

"No!" I say, exasperated.

"Just tell me what you want, Odd," she says calmly.

"I want you, Aelita, okay?" As soon as I realize what I just said, I clap my hands over my mouth.

"You want me?" I nod slowly, realizing that there is no way I'm going to get out of this one.

"Like how? How do you want... me?" I can't figure out how to describe it in words, so I do without.

I pull my hands away and quickly press my lips to hers.

It's only the briefest of touches, and I pull away almost instantly.

"I... I... I'm sorry Aelita. I shouldn't have don't that. You... you and Jeremie... I'm sorry."

And about five minutes later, I've already put a mile between the two of us.

* * *

**Really, it's more of a thought than anything else, not really a story. It's quite a bit more... artistically written than most of my stories are, and I liked it.**

**And even if you didn't like the pairing, I'd still like a review.**

**Tell me if you liked it, please?**


	2. Jeremie

**Due to popular demand, I have decided that yes, I will continue this story, just a little bit.  
This chapter happens to be a little bit different than the first, it's not angsty or sad or anything. But it does expound on the story.  
So, here we go, Chapter Two.**

**

* * *

Chapter 2**

"Jeremie?" His door is cracked my head poking through into his room.

"Come in Odd."

"Look, I just came to—"

"Apologize?"

"Yeah. You already know?" Jeremie swivels in his seat to face me, and he might as well be the evil mastermind of a bad spy movie, stroking a cat and has a scar over the missing eye with an eye patch.

"Yes. Aelita came to me afterwards and told me what happened."

"You're not mad?"

"No, not really. She came and told me immediately, and now here you are, coming to apologize. At least I didn't have to hear through the grapevine about my girlfriend cheating on me."

"Can you forgive me? It was an impulse, an accident, I swear. It will never happen again."

"I forgive you Odd." He said it rather blankly, without much emotion. It was so strange that I actually stumbled over my words a bit.

"That's it? You forgive me, just like that?" Jeremie shrugs, smiling slightly.

"The way I see it, I have two options. One: I can get mad, throw a fit, ostracize you from the group, and forbid you from ever seeing Aelita again. But that's not going to solve anything. Everyone will be sad, and Aelita told me that she would feel guilty."

"But she didn't--!" I start to say, but Jeremie cuts me off.

"I tried the exact same argument to no effect." I sit quietly and wait for a moment for him to finish.

"And the other option?"

"The other option is the one I have chosen, forgiveness. I don't trust you now, and I don't think Aelita does either. You'll have to work hard to earn it back. I'm not going to pretend it never happened. You kissed my girlfriend on purpose, and pretending it didn't happen won't make it go away. But I am willing to forgive and move on." He smiles at me, and I smile back weakly. But I have his forgiveness, and that's all I can ask for right now.

"No hard feelings?"

"No hard feelings. Just promise me it won't happen again."

"That I can do. Thanks Einstein." The door is open and I'm about to step through when Jeremie calls to me again.

"Hey Odd?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you like the kiss?" I shrug.

"Kind of. She didn't really kiss back." He smiles, just slightly.

"Good. One last question. Do you love her?"

"I don't know about love. I've been crushing on her basically since she came to Earth." He nods, and I reach for the door handle again. But when a thought comes to my mind, I stop dead.

"Alright Jeremie, my turn for a question." Intrigue crosses his face.

"Sounds fair. Shoot."

"Why do you love Aelita?" Jeremie looks at me for a moment before responding.

"I was about to list off a couple hundred traits about her, but then I realized: What isn't there to love about her?"

"Then we have a mutual understanding."

* * *

**This will not be a long chapter story by any account, maybe two or three more after this, AT MOST.  
I've already taken another oneshot that I loved and ruined it by turning it into a story. I refuse to do it with this one.**

**Review please? Tell me what you think.**


	3. Ulrich

"So Odd, what would you like for your birthday?"

"I don't know. Whatever." My natural reply.

"Alright then. You'll just get something horrible then. Like a lump of coal."

"Ulrich, that's Christmas. Not my birthday."

"Oh, well then, you'll get a hunk of wood."

"Alright, just what I wanted!" I say, feigning excitement.

"Alright Odd, what's going on? You've been unusually quiet ever since school got out today."

"Nothing happened. I just don't feel like talking much."

"Aelita pulled you aside for a moment, what happened?"

"Nothing."

"What did she ask you?"

"She asked what I wanted for my birthday."

"What did you say?"

"Same thing I just told you."

"Okay, then what happened?"

"Nothing, we started talking about other stuff."

"Oh really, then why don't I believe you?"

"I don't know. That's your problem, not mine."

"Well, what did you do after that?"

"We said goodbye and went out separate ways."

"Then why didn't you answer when I called your phone?" After I've checked my phone and realized I have two missed calls from Ulrich, I try to come up with a reply.

Drawing a blank, I just sit there and stare at my phone for a while.

"I called Yumi, then Jeremie to see if they knew where you were, considering you never came back to our room. Neither of them knew. But Aelita sure had an interesting story to tell. I finally close my phone and look up at him.

"What did she tell you?"

"Everything."

"As in?"

"That you kissed her and ran off." I stare at him emotionless for a moment.

"Then why the hell did you go through all of that trouble trying to make me tell you?" Ulrich shrugs at me. Kiwi jumps onto my lap, and I begin to pet him, which soothes my nerves.

"Because I wanted to hear it from you. You're my best friend, I was hoping to hear it from you instead of having to go to Aelita." I just shrug.

"I really didn't want to talk about it." Ulrich nods in understanding as I go back to petting Kiwi.

"How long have you liked her?" I ponder saying something about Jeremie wondering the same thing, but I decide against it.

"I always thought she was cute on Lyoko, but I didn't really develop feelings for her until she came to live with us."

"I see." I was expecting a little bit more on the end of that sentence, so I look up, surprised.

"That's it? Just, 'I see?' No advice, no comment, not even sarcasm?" He just shrugs back at me.

"What do you want me to say? I can't tell you to keep going for her, and pit you against Jeremie. I don't really have any comments, and sarcasm is definitely not what you need right now?" I take a deep breath and sigh.

"You're right. Thanks anyway Ulrich."

"No problem." After a moment, I speak again, needing some extra input.

"Ulrich, off the record… what would you do?" He looks and me and grins slightly.

"I didn't stop when Yumi started hanging out with William, did I?"


	4. Yumi

_Okay, so I told myself that I would only write this story during French class or History class. Because then I have to write it on paper, which significantly alters my writing style (to my liking), instead of on the computer.  
Unfortunately, My semester is ending. I only have tomorrow in my French and History classes. So, I'm just going to have to do it during physics. :P Here's the next chapter, enjoy._

**

* * *

WIWFMB**

Chapter 4

"Happy birthday Odd" Yumi says as she hands me a wrapped gift with a bow.

"Ah, sweet! What is it?" I ask, putting it up to my ea and shaking it.

"Hey, woah! Don't shake it!" She says, grabbing it to hold it steady. I look at her blankly.

"That means it's fragile. It's not a vase or something like that, is it?"

"No," She replies shortly. I unwrap it to find a plain brown box.

"It's a box!" I exclaim, hugging it close to my chest. Yumi punches me on the shoulder playfully.

"Shut up and open it." I try to open it, but it's taped securely shut.

"Uh..." I grin at her as she hands me her pocketknife.

"How come I'm the girl and I have the knife?" I just shrug, starting to open the box.

"Because you're Yumi?"

"So what does that mean?"

"That means you're cooler than the other girls out there."

"Thank you." The box opens, and I find a laptop looking back up at me.

"You got me a laptop?" I ask slowly, pulling the shiny black laptop out of the box.

"Well, it's old, and I got it used, but it does have wireless internet. And it came with video and audio editing programs..." I carefully set the laptop on top of the box and put it on the ground.

"Odd? What're you doing...?"

I quickly grab Yumi around the waist and spin her around in a giant hug.

"Yumi you're the greatest!"

"Yes Odd, I know! Now put me down!" Yumi says laughing wildly.

I set her back down, which is a weird feeling because she's taller than me.

"Really Yumi, a laptop? You're the greatest, you're the best, if I wasn't already in love with Aelita I'd kiss you, I'd…" I quickly slap my hands over my mouth.

"What was that?"

"Uh… that I'd kiss you. I didn't mean it, I was just saying…"

"No, not that. Before that."

"You're the greatest?"

"Let's just skip right to the 'in love with Aelita' part." She says and I kind of half-smile.

"I have some concerns about that too." She smiles back at me and leans against the wall.

"Really now."

"Yeah. Um… since you're a girl…"

"I'm glad you noticed."

"AND one of my best friends…"

"That's better."

"Can I ask for some advice?"

"Of course."

"Well, you see, yesterday…" She raises her hand to stop me.

"Don't bother explaining, I've already been filled in."

"Aelita told you too?"

"She came to me for advice."

"Really? What did you tell her?"  
"Nope, sorry. Top secret."

'Well then, what're you going to tell me?"

"Don't get your hopes up, but wait it out. You might be surprised."

* * *

_R&R please, as always_


	5. Aelita

**WIWFMB**

Chapter 5

"Happy birthday Odd!" My friends yell as they crowd around me, and Ulrich shoves a cake in my arms.

Sixteen candles on it, arranged in the numbers, with 'Happy Sweet Sixteen Odd' written in frosting.

"Aw, you guys rock!" I say, grinning.

"Make a wish Odd!" Yumi says happily. I grin and look around at my friends who are the greatest.

My eyes linger for a moment longer on Aelita, and she smiles at me bashfully before I quickly look away. I glance back at Jeremie, who didn't seem to notice.

"C'mon Odd, make a wish!" Ulrich says more forcefully. I think he may have noticed me looking at Aelita.

"Make it good, it could come true!" Aelita adds, and I grin. I come up with something quickly and blow out the candles.

Immediately after I've done that, I regret making the wish that I did.

I'll bet you can guess what it is.

After that, we have a blast. I open Jeremie's present, which is totally awesome. His dad has connections, and he used it to buy me an iPod cheap. I take my extensive music collection on my computer and sync it up. I then proceed to play my music loudly over my boom box, and start rocking out.

Yumi pulls out a backpack, opening it to reveal Hiroki's Xbox 360, which she had 'borrowed' for the evening.

I quickly hook it up to our TV, and pop in the first four-player game I saw. Grabbing the wireless controllers, I toss one to Jeremie, one to Ulrich, and one to Yumi, keeping the last one for myself.

"Thanks Odd, but I've had enough of Halo from playing with Hiroki," Yumi says.

"Alright then, give it to Aelita." I reply, starting up the game.

After the first game, I pull up the stats to see how I did. I won, of course, and Ulrich came in a close second. I don't think Jeremie has any gaming tendencies whatsoever, because he came in last, even behind Aelita.

"Hey Odd, you didn't kill Aelita even once!" Ulrich says, pulling up my stats. I raise an eyebrow and look it over. It's true, I never killed her. I killed Ulrich a few times, and Jeremie a ton, but never Aelita.

"Weird."

* * *

After a few hours, everyone begins to trickle off to their own destinations, because it's getting late.

Jeremie left a while ago, and Yumi took over his controller. As it turns out, Yumi is amazingly good at this, having spent so much time with Hiroki.

"Ten thirty-five. Sorry guys, time for me to go home." She says after a while. She gathers up the Xbox and puts it all back in her backpack.

"I'll walk you home Yumi," Ulrich says casually. I look over at him and he has a light smirk plastered on his face. I look at him questioningly, and he just shrugs.

"Okay, thanks Ulrich," Yumi says happily. She walks over to me and gives me a hug. "Hope you had a good birthday Odd."

"The best, thanks a bunch Yumi." She smiles and walks out the door with Ulrich.

It's only now that I've realized why Ulrich was smirking.

"Hey Aelita," I say to the _last person_ left in the room, "Thanks for coming," I say, sitting down on my bed. I figured she was going to be leaving soon, but she surprises me by sitting down on my bed next to me.

"So Odd, did you get everything you wanted?" I glance at her quickly and nod.

"Yeah, and more," I say quickly.

"Liar."

"What?"

"You just lied to me. Either that, or you lied to me yesterday." I blink slowly, knowing I've been defeated.

"Well… it wasn't a total lie. I did get more than I was expecting."

"But not everything…"

"No."

"Well, it's your birthday Odd. I think that you should get what you want," She states firmly.

"What does that mean…?" I ask slowly.

"This," she says and slowly kisses me.

* * *

**Yeah, it's been a while since an update, but I'm taking my time with this story.**

**I'm not too sure why I put the whole Halo thing in there, it just seemed like something Odd would love to do at his birthday party.**


	6. For A Loop

_I have no idea how long this story is going to end up being. I originally told myself that this would be short, but I'm liking it way too much. This will go on until... well, until I feel like stopping it._

* * *

**WIWFMB**

Chapter 6

She kissed me, slowly and sweetly. Logic flew out the window, and a more primeval instinct surfaced.

I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her closer to me. She responds in kind by putting a hand around my neck.

But something about her touch set off something in my head, bringing me back to reality and setting off alarm bells. I pull away and open my eyes.

"No… Aelita, I can't. It's not right."

"Why not?"

"You know why… I can't do this to Jeremie. Or you."

"Jeremie knows."

"He knows? He's okay with you cheating on him?"

"I'm not cheating on him. We're not dating anymore."

"You broke up?"  
"Broke up isn't exactly the right phrase. We discontinued our relationship until I can sort out my feelings."

"Your feelings?"

"Yeah, you kind of threw me for a loop Odd. I didn't realize just how much I liked you until you kissed me yesterday."

"So… you have feelings for me?" I ask slowly. She nods twice in response.

"Don't get me wrong, I still love Jeremie. I just know that I like you too. As more than just a friend."  
"So what does that mean for us?"

"Not much. It means we're going to keep hanging out as friends. I'm not going to date you, I'm not going to date Jeremie."

"Okay. But… that's not going to last forever. Sooner or later, you're going to have to pick," I say fairly. She nods solemnly.

"I know."

"So this isn't going to help solve anything."

"No, but it will give me the chance to sort out my feelings."  
"Okay." We sit in silence for several moments, each of us waiting for the other to say something. After a little bit Aelita speaks up.

"How long until Ulrich gets back?" She asks, getting a strange look in her eye. I raise an eyebrow, looking back at her.

"Assuming they're walking at normal pace and not slower than normal to give us more time, I'd say in about ten minutes."

"Okay. What do you intend to do with that time?" She asks mischievously, leaning in for another kiss. I kiss her once, but pull away right afterwards.

"Wow Aelita. I didn't know you could be so… so…" I stumble, looking for the right word. She rolls her eyes and kisses me again.

"Are you complaining?" she asks. I shake my head vigorously.

"No, no way!" I say and kiss her again, more forcefully.

After a moment, she pushes me away lightly, but with enough force so that I know she's serious.

"Okay Odd. This far is fine. But no further, and your hands stay where they're supposed to be."

"Not a problem," I say, and we kiss again. We continue like this, talking as much as kissing, for the next fifteen minutes until there's a knock on the door.

* * *

_Just something I wanted to get across that makes this story different from most OxA fics I've read is that Aelita did not dump Jeremie for Odd. Most fics I've read end up with Aelita leaving Jeremie just because the author doesn't like him. Jeremie happens to be one of my favorite characters actually, and I wanted to do him justice._

_Oh, and if you can't figure out who's knocking, just think for a second. It'll come to you. :)_


End file.
